I completely agree. The last 2 albums have been pretty awful and clear that Mike wanted to be "more metal". While Portnoy is a great drummer, his style the last few albums had been very predictable.

Curious, while I wasn't a huge fan of any album since Six Degrees (Black Clouds had some good content though), I hardly think that Portnoy wanted to be more metal. Look at all his side project stuff? He's not doing much metal any more. He said himself that he was having more fun with Transatlantic than Dream Theater, and Transatlantic is a Beatle-influenced progrock band. If I've taken away anything from his departure, it's that he doesn't really want to do metal anymore.

I completely agree. The last 2 albums have been pretty awful and clear that Mike wanted to be "more metal". While Portnoy is a great drummer, his style the last few albums had been very predictable.

Curious, while I wasn't a huge fan of any album since Six Degrees (Black Clouds had some good content though), I hardly think that Portnoy wanted to be more metal. Look at all his side project stuff? He's not doing much metal any more. He said himself that he was having more fun with Transatlantic than Dream Theater, and Transatlantic is a Beatle-influenced progrock band. If I've taken away anything from his departure, it's that he doesn't really want to do metal anymore.

I completely agree. The last 2 albums have been pretty awful and clear that Mike wanted to be "more metal". While Portnoy is a great drummer, his style the last few albums had been very predictable.

Curious, while I wasn't a huge fan of any album since Six Degrees (Black Clouds had some good content though), I hardly think that Portnoy wanted to be more metal. Look at all his side project stuff? He's not doing much metal any more. He said himself that he was having more fun with Transatlantic than Dream Theater, and Transatlantic is a Beatle-influenced progrock band. If I've taken away anything from his departure, it's that he doesn't really want to do metal anymore.

Then how do you explain Avenge Sevenfold?

And how do you explain transatlantic? He likes all kinds of music, the beatles are his favorite band ever. He was invited to tour with AX7 after their drummer died, things worked out so well between them that he ended up staying with them longer than he planned. He did the same thing with Fates' Warning and other bands. When people need a drummer they invite him, who he plays with is irrelevant to the nature of his contribution to DT's music.Metal is a big part of DT's sound, it was there from the start, what really bothers people are the over the top instrumental sections that sometimes don't fit the songs at all and completely break their flow and the endless shredding. Most of the responsibility for this writing style lies with Petrucci and Rudess, not Mike.

The new album is done and they still haven't announced who the new drummer is, shit's ridiculous.

When I first heard Dream Theater back in about 1992/93 it was the Images and Words album and the first word that came to mind was "epic". I was so tired of hard rock and other genres that didn't really sing about anything. Dream Theater's music was different. The music seemed like an art form, but somewhere after Metropolis II it was all gone. They are now the exact reason I hate hard rock and metal now. It is all the same as everyone else. Instead of DT going far beyond all other musical acts from their earlier form they have lowered their standards to the rest of the mediocre group of music nowadays. They just seem like generic metal. Which is why I have moved on. I wish they would make music again like the old days. I also wish James' singing would be less screaming and more singing like the old days as well.

However, I've seen Mangini live in concert, with Steve Vai. Let's just say, Steve is supposed to be one of the greatest guitar players on the planet, and didn't disappoint... and yet, it was Mangini who really stole the show. His fills were inventive, masterful, artistic, and complex, to say the least. Probably the best rock drummer I've seen in concert... and I've seen Portnoy 3 times.

However, I've seen Mangini live in concert, with Steve Vai. Let's just say, Steve is supposed to be one of the greatest guitar players on the planet, and didn't disappoint... and yet, it was Mangini who really stole the show. His fills were inventive, masterful, artistic, and complex, to say the least. Probably the best rock drummer I've seen in concert... and I've seen Portnoy 3 times.

Yeah... I'd be happy with Mangini.

Watch it man, Mangini playing the dance of eternity is totally worth it. There's also footage from the other drummers, some crazy shit.

Alright, forget what I said, I just watched the first two, and I'm glad I did. Not only that, but I think it was VERY WELL PRODUCED, and extremely interesting. It didn't feel like the filming was horribly intrusive, either. Also, I think that's probably the most I've ever heard Myung say, I'm used to him looking away from the camera and saying, "Go away, Mike".

I was a little weirded out by Jordan and James worrying about amount of interpretation. For one thing, when Jordan, himself, first came on board, he changed just about everything. For the Moore material, it was fresh and exciting, but for the Sherinian material, I thought it was bland and uninspiring. Now, granted, I wasn't particularly impressed with the interpretations that they did. Thomas's ending for Dance of Eternity was pretty bad taste, putting double-bass blasts between the final three hits... not good, that tune is supposed to come to a grinding hault, and throwing in blast beats in there destroys the pacing. Virgil seemed like a mess, personally, I think they would have serious communication and personality issues with him.

It's hard to judge for youself in these situations, because the guys give their own interpretations so much, I find myself feeling just the way they feel. But if I had been there, without the commentary, I might feel completely differently. So yeah, currently I like Mangini and Marco the best. The only ones I was personally unimpressed with, aside from the comments, were Thomas and Virgil. And yes, that's heresy cuz Virgil's a God... but I just wasn't feeling it.

Then again, my favorite new member in DT was Derek Sherinian, and they hated him, so what do I know?

I just watched episode 2 and I agree with everything you said. Like I said my money was on Mangini but Marco blew me away and I think he's going to win, during the jam parts you could tell that it worked out really well and he seems like a really nice guy too.Roddy's blast beat was insane but it looks like he struggled with the jams.Lang was pretty good but I agree with what you said about TDOE.As for Donati, well, many consider him the very best drummer in the world and with good reason but I didn't feel like the chemistry was there.Marco just rocked, fucking amazing.

I wonder why they devoted an entire episode to Mangini... My guess is that the rumours are true and they picked him. Looks like he recently left Berkley to "pursue other career opportunities"...

But man, I gotta tell you, what an overload of amazing drumming, the guys must feel privileged to have all these amazing drummers wanting to join the band.

Mangini was so emotional when he received the news, it actually brough tears to my eyes.Like I said, he was the first name that came to my mind and I'm happy with the choice. I would've been equally happy with Marco though and his age is a lot closer to that of the founding members. Mangini is 48, I hope he'll be able to maintain the level he has now for many years, DT tours are very exhausting.Playing TDOE's intro with one hand while doing a stick twirl with the other is pure awesome.Does Mangini still hold the speed record?

I'm happy. makes sense. Actually, I think the DT guys are in their mid-late 40s. They formed DT (Majesty) in 85 when they were at the end of college. So if they were roughly 20, they would be 46 now. Jordan's slightly younger I think. I was actually thinking about age a bit. Marco may be 40, but he really LOOKS young, like 30. he doesn't quite fit the DT image, as bad as that sounds. I know that's the dumbest reason not to pick a bandmate, but DT is a huge institution and they have things to consider that we may not like to think about. Petrucci may now be the CEO of that institution, but there's a lot of people to answer to. Marco may have just not matched up.

That said, Mangini is my pick for DT. I think Marco is probably the best drummer there and will go on to do wonderful things on his own. In fact, I hope he goes on to lead his own group, because I think he's really got something special that could be built into a powerful entity.